In the opening day of the Gonzaga D.C. Classic in Washington, both New York teams advanced to the next round on Friday,

The Holy Cross Knights of Queens, NY and the St. Raymond Ravens of the Bronx, NY will play on Saturday in the semifinal rounds.

Knights Clip the Chargers

The Holy Cross Knights of Queens, NY beat the Chantilly Chargers of Chantilly, VA 69-62 in the first round of the Gonzaga DC Classic Basketball Tournament. The Knights jumped out to a 37-33 lead at halftime behind the three point shooting of Senior guard Evan Conti (game high 26points) and Senior center Marcus Hopper (14 points).

The Knights extended the lead to 54-44 late in the third quarter but the Chargers stormed back, scoring the last 5 points of the quarter in the final 3 seconds. Senior guard Devin Ballam (7 points) hit a jumper and was fouled. He missed the foul shot, but the Knights Senior center 7'0" John Manning (14 points) rebounded the miss and fed Sophomore forward Brian Sydnor (17 points) for a three at the buzzer.

The Knights continued to fight back and cut the lead to 57-55 with 3 minutes to play, but Conti took over, making a layup, then grabbing an offensive rebound, hitting the shot and getting fouled. The subsequent foul shot made the score 62-55 and the Knights cruised to victory.

Junior guard Anthony Libroia added 13 points for the Knights and the Charges Senior forward Jake Weigand had 13 points. The Knights will play the winner of the game between the host team Gonzaga and St. John's of Shrewsbury, MA, Saturday night at 6:45pm at American University's Bender Arena.

Ravens Fly Over Falcons

The Good Counsel Falcons got off to a poor first quarter, which included a string of turnovers that led to six quick points for the St. Raymond Ravens and a 20-10 deficit. For the remainder of the game the Falcons showed more consistency and protected the ball better, but they never mounted a serious threat as the Ravens cruised to an easy 63-54 win.

The three point shooting of Good Counsel's Matt McCarthy kept the Falcons almost within reach. McCarthy scored 17 points, 13 of them in the second half. Patrick Finotti added 16 points for the Falcons.

In the end, Good Counsel's shooting could not overcome the inside play of St. Raymond's Nkereuwem Okoro, who led all scorers with 18 points. Daniel Dingle and Lawrence Graves each added 12 points. St. Raymond moves on to Saturday night's second semi-final game at American University against Charlotte Christian, set for 8:30 PM. Good Counsel will play in the 5:00 PM consolation game against Mount St. Joseph.